Democracy & Citizenship

On April 10th, 2024, the European Parliament voted to endorse the European Commission’s proposal on a ‘New Pact on Migration and Asylum’. After nearly ten years since the so-called 2015 ‘refugee crisis’ and the first proposal for the amendment of the Common European Asylum System with the ‘European Agenda on Migration’, the reform of the EU asylum policy seems to be walking its last steps to the finishing line.

Join eu!radio as we explore the insights of Mechthild Roos, Lecturer in Comparative Politics at the University of Augsburg, on the upcoming European Parliament elections.

Jannik Jansen, Policy Fellow at the Jacques Delors Centre in Berlin, shares insights with eu!radio from a recent survey, revealing that citizens across Germany, France, and Poland still strongly support ambitious climate action.

The enduring romanticized notion that border regions serve as the quintessential embodiment of European identity has long captured our collective imagination. However, recent scholarly inquiry challenges this assumption, suggesting that the emotional attachment to Europe among individuals residing in border regions is not significantly different from those living inland.

The EU has aimed to support democratization in Arab countries for decades, yet the region is still one of the most authoritarian in the world. What is most striking is that the EU has apparently not learnt from its past ineffective democracy support (DS) attempts but continuously reproduces DS malpractices.

We recently welcomed Michael Richter to eu!radio! He is a postdoctoral research fellow and lecturer at the University of Surrey, in Britain. He spoke about how Ukraine is not only defending itself against the Russian aggression, but also fighting a second battle, against corruption.

We recently welcomed Simon Usherwood to eu!radio! He is a professor at the Open University in Britain, and Chair of UACES. He shared his thoughts on the forthcoming European Parliament elections.

We recently welcomed Emilija Tudzarovska to eu!radio! She is a Lecturer in Contemporary European Politics at Charles University, in Prague and her research focuses on the democratic legitimacy of the European Union. She spoke about her scientific approach to the crisis of representative democracy that we all perceive.

We recently welcomed Albrecht Sonntag to eu!radio! He is a professor at ESSCA School of Management, based in Angers, France. He spoke about the European Union’s learning process over the last two years since Russia's invasion on Ukraine.

by Ton van den Brink (Utrecht University), Martijn Huysmans (Utrecht University) and Philippe van Gruisen (Leiden University) The subsidiarity principle, which says the EU should not overreach and leave as much freedom as possible to the Member States, got a real boost from the Treaty of Lisbon. Nonetheless, a significant gap between the political and […]